WEST SACRAMENTO, CALIF. – Daren Brown leaned against the batting cage in Sacramento, pointing beyond the center-field wall where four Pacific Coast League Championship banners hang, all collected during the past six seasons.
“Look at the banners out there,” said the Rainiers’ manager, hours before Friday’s first pitch. “You know you’re going to have to come through here to win it all.”
Following Friday night’s 13-2 loss to the River Cats, the Rainiers will need to come from behind to stop history from repeating itself. The Rainiers now trail 2-1 in the best-of-five first-round Pacific Coast League postseason series.
The Rainiers are no strangers to playing with their backs against the wall, already having proved capable of comebacks this season. Tacoma rallied from 71/2 games back in the final weeks to win the PCL Pacific North Division.
“We’ve been challenged before and met every challenge,” Brown said after Friday’s loss. “We’ve been playing meaningful games for three weeks; this is nothing new to us.”
Historically, the Rainiers have performed well in must-win situations in Sacramento. The Rainiers had won five consecutive postseason games in Sacramento since 2001 before Friday night’s loss.
Tacoma took the final three first-round games at Raley Field in the 2005 postseason to rally from a 2-0 series deficit. In 2001, Tacoma overcame a 2-1 series deficit by winning the final two games in Sacramento.
“Two games in a row, that’s it. That’s all we have to do, and we’ve done it before,” said designated hitter Brad Nelson, who was 2-for-4 with an RBI on Friday.
“Sadly, it’s crunch time and with one loss, the season is over.”
The River Cats jumped all over Rainiers starter Andy Baldwin, scoring six runs off the right-hander to ignite the crowd of 11,894. Baldwin lasted just 2 innings before taking a seat alone in the Tacoma dugout.
The River Cats scored four runs off Baldwin during the second inning behind back-to-back doubles by Chris Denorfia and Adrian Cardenas and a bloop RBI single from Brett Wallace.
“It’s been the same thing in each game,” Brown said. “Whatever team can jump out early has been the team to win.”
The Tacoma bullpen didn’t fare much better against Sacramento bats.
The River Cats added two runs off reliever Carlos Silva during the seventh inning on Matt Carson’s two-run home run. Sacramento then exploded for five runs in the eighth against reliever Robert Manuel, capped by Brett Wallace’s three-run home run.
The Rainiers scored their first run off Sacramento starter Jerome Williams in the fourth inning, when left fielder Prentice Redman doubled and later scored on Mike Wilson’s sharp fielder’s choice groundout.
It’s all the offense Tacoma could produce against Williams, who pitched seven innings, striking out eight and walking just one. The Rainiers added a run in the eighth inning on a Nelson RBI single. Tacoma finished with nine hits, leaving 10 on base.
The winner between Tacoma and Sacramento will face the Memphis Redbirds in the PCL Championship. The Redbirds completed a series sweep against the Albuquerque Isotopes on Friday night to win the American Conference Championship.
On tap
Tacoma will start right-hander Gaby Hernandez (10-9, 5.23) against Sacramento righty Shawn Chacon (8-4, 6.29) Game 4 tonight at 7:05. Hernandez has won seven straight decisions.
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